Orrin Keepnews

Orrin Keepnews (* 2. March 1923 in New York City , New York ; † 1. March 2015 in El Cerrito , California ) was an American jazz - producer and founder of Labels Riverside, Milestone and Landmark.

Keepnews was best known for his work with the pianist and co-founder of the bebop Thelonious Monk , plus recordings with artists such as Bill Evans , Cannonball Adderley , McCoy Tyner and the Kronos Quartet . Since the 1990s, Keepnews was responsible as a producer for a number of re-releases of historical jazz recordings, some of which were originally produced by him. In addition, Keepnews was a sought-after and award-winning author for so-called liner notes and published two books on jazz history. In 2004 he received the " Trustees Award ", the Recording Academy's highest honor for services to music that do not consist in a performance.

life and work

Born in the New York borough of the Bronx, the son of a teacher and an employee of the New York Social Security Agency, Keepnews graduated from Lincoln School at the age of 16. At this time, inspired by the music of Coleman Hawkins and Pee Wee Russell , his interest in jazz developed. At the age of 15, Keepnews regularly visited the bars on 52nd Street or in the " Village ", Keepnews said:

"If you were big enough to go to a bar and drop 75 cents or a dollar for a drink, no one asked you if you were old enough."

In the beginning, Keepnews was, as he himself said, less about the music, which at first would just have been there, but then would have inspired him over time. Keepnews majored in English at Columbia College and began covering concerts at Village Vanguard in his spare time for the college newspaper Spectator . In 1943 Keepnews received his draft for military service, but was allowed to finish his studies before taking up the service.

Keepnews flew in a Boeing B-29 bomber during attacks against Japan.

Keepnews then worked for three years as a radar officer on board a B-29 bomber - the type of aircraft from which the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 - and also flew on missions against Japan during the final months of World War II . After his discharge from military service in 1946, Keepnews first enrolled at Columbia again. Keepnews described his situation as follows:

“I registered for the higher semesters in order to feel educated again as quickly as possible, but I didn't want a master’s degree. I thought, 'Go to Columbia as long as necessary until you can go out into the world again and be what you want, and then look for a job.' That was exactly what happened. "

During this time, Keepnews met the enthusiastic jazz fan and record collector Bill Grauer . He later worked as an editor and publisher for various publishers, including Simon & Schuster , where Keepnews met his future wife Lucy. He was also the editor of Grauer's The Record Changer . From 1952, Keepnews and Grauer worked together for RCA Victor on a series of reissues of jazz recordings from the 1920s, from which the idea of ​​an own label soon developed.

Riverside (1953-1964)

In 1953, Keepnews founded the Riverside label together with Grauer (originally with the addition of Bill Grauer Productions ). Grauer took over the economic management, while Keepnews took care of the artistic matters. The idea behind Riverside was to create a label on which historical jazz and blues recordings from the 1920s ( Joe King Oliver , Jelly Roll Morton , Ma Rainey , Blind Lemon Jefferson and others) could be re-released, but already in 1954 Keepnews and Grauer deviated from their original philosophy and produced Randy Weston Plays Cole Porter In A Modern Mood, the first album by pianist Randy Weston , for which Paul Bacon designed the cover.

Thelonious Monk (1955–1961)

In 1955, at the suggestion of Weston, Riverside signed the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk , who had terminated his contract with Bob Weinstock's prestige label in return for a payment of $ 108.27 . Monk and Keepnews met in 1948 when Keepnews interviewed Monk for the Record Changer in the apartment of Blue Note founder Alfred Lion in Greenwich Village . The interview (and thus Keepnews) was remembered by Monk, who was still relatively unknown at the time, as it was his first interview for a national magazine.

In the same year, the first joint album Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington was released, on which Monk (accompanied by bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke ) interpreted compositions by Duke Ellington without exception , the recordings were made in Rudy Van Gelder's studio , the cover adorns a painting by Henri Rousseau ( The Lion's Meal ). Monk, who had already made a name for himself as a composer, was initially not very enthusiastic about this idea, but later found pleasure in it and gave Ellington's compositions his very own style.

Musicians such as Art Blakey , Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins could be won for further recordings, including Monk's classic Brilliant Corners and Monk's Music . Monk himself brought John Coltrane into his band after he split up with Miles Davis in an argument . Keepnews about Monk:

“Monk had no mercy. He had his standards. I probably learned just as much about life from him as I did about music. "

The connection to Monk remained even after his move to Columbia , so Keepnews wrote the liner notes for a number of Monk's later recordings. In addition, Keepnews was responsible for a number of reissues of the Monk recordings from Prestige, Riverside and Columbia. Thelonious Monk - The Complete Riverside Recordings brought Keepnews a 1988 Grammy for “Best Album Text” and “Best Historical Album”.

Bill Evans (1956-1963)

In 1956, guitarist Mundell Lowe called Keepnews and persuaded him and his partner Grauer to listen to some recordings by pianist Bill Evans over the phone. Lowe had previously played on a few jam sessions with Evans and Red Mitchell . Keepnews and Grauer decided spontaneously to give Evans the opportunity to record, but they first had to persuade the extremely humble Evans to do so. The production of the first recording took place - as is customary with Riverside - in a single day and was released in the same year under the title New Jazz Conceptions . Although the album received good reviews, for example in the renowned jazz magazine Down Beat , it only sold 800 times in the first year.

1958 brought Miles Davis Evans to replace Red Garland for a few months (February – November) in his band. Keepnews made the second attempt with Evans as leader at the end of the same year with the inclusion of Everybody Digs Bill Evans (with Cannonball Adderley's bassist Sam Jones and Davis' drummer Philly Joe Jones ). The recording was released in 1959 and sold better than its predecessor.

Evans had his first success in 1959 without Riverside as a pianist in the Miles Davis Sextet with the recordings of Kind of Blue , the final breakthrough came with Keepnews / Riverside and Bill Evans with the inclusion of Portrait in Jazz (1959) and Waltz for Debby (1961) (both with Scott LaFaro on bass and Paul Motian on drums). Both recordings are counted among the best recordings in jazz by fans and critics and were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 and 1998 respectively.

The albums Waltz for Debby and Sunday at the Village Vanguard by the trio Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian were created in the Village Vanguard in 1961 .

The recordings for Waltz for Debby were made on June 25, 1961 in the Village Vanguard , at this session Keepnews recorded another Evans album Sunday at the Village Vanguard . The two albums were the last recordings with Scott LaFaro, who died less than two weeks later after a car accident. What was special about these recordings was the recording technique. Instead of being in an adjoining room, as is often the case, the recording team (consisting of Keepnews and sound engineer David Jones) was in front of the stage within easy reach of the musicians. Much of the recordings were released in 2005 as The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961 .

Like the first recordings with Monk, many of Evans' recordings were made in a trio with piano, bass and drums. A preference that shows in many Keepnews productions, for example also in the recordings with Red Garland or McCoy Tyner (from the late 1960s for Milestone). However, the concept found its most intense expression in the recordings of the trio Evans, LaFaro and Motian. Last but not least, Sunday at the Village Vanguard is considered the best piano trio album of all time.

Cannonball Adderley (1958-1964)

As another star for Riverside, Keepnews was able to win the saxophonist Cannonball Adderley in 1958 , as Evans was a member of the first Miles Davis quintet / sextet when recording Kind of Blue (1959). Shortly before that, Adderley had released his first own album Somethin 'Else (with Davis as a sideman ) on Blue Note. Keepnews and Adderley met in 1957, and in the course of their collaboration they developed a close friendship that lasted until Adderley's death in 1975. Adderley was the first artist to appear to sign a contract with a manager.Although this was a standard contract, Keepnews and Adderley made a special verbal agreement: whenever and wherever Adderley would find a band and play with them, Keepnews would record it and publish.

“A very interesting verbal agreement: a nonexistent band would be picked up immediately, somewhere 'on the road', by a very financially weak company that never took a producer like me further than a subway ride from home. But it became the best example of a good result according to the principle: 'throw your bread on the water' since the Bible. "

The recordings took place on October 18 and 20, 1959 at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco and appeared under the name Live in San Francisco . With this and the following albums, Adderley and his quintet (sometimes also a sextet) became the leading group in soul jazz , that mixture of hard bop and soul .

Adderley's special bond with Riverside was particularly evident after Grauer's death and Riverside's financial decline in 1964: despite lucrative offers from other labels, Adderley extended his contract. After Riverside went bankrupt, Adderley went to Capitol Records for a few years . From 1973 until his death he was under contract with Fantasy Records , the label that Keepnews now also worked for.

In addition to the three aforementioned protagonists, Riverside was able to win a number of other high-profile musicians, including Cannonball Adderley's brother Nat , Wes Montgomery (who went to Creed Taylor's Verve label in the mid-1960s ) and Chet Baker . Keepnews, who was a fan of many of his artists, jokingly described his position as producer:

“We were jazz fans who became record companies. Who should contradict you when you claim you are a producer when you have your own company? "

Despite this line-up, the commitment of the jazz fans Keepnews and Grauer and the fact that Riverside quickly achieved a status similar to that of the renowned Prestige and Blue Note labels, the financial situation of the independent label was rather tense, Keepnews:

“Our goal wasn't to sell a lot of records to get rich. Our goal was to sell enough records to be able to make the next one. "

On December 15, 1963, Grauer died of a heart attack, from then on Keepnews managed the business alone until the company went bankrupt in 1964. In 1972 the rights to the recordings became the property of Fantasy Records.

Milestone (1966-1972)

Together with the Hanover-born pianist Dick Katz , Keepnews founded Milestone Records in 1966. Milestone artists included McCoy Tyner , Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson , Gary Bartz, and Lee Konitz . Keepnews also produced records by Thad Jones , Wynton Kelly , Nat Adderley and Junior Mance on Milestone .

Keepnews had already worked with Rollins on the Riverside recordings of Monk, but here Rollins was given the opportunity to publish recordings under his own name. Rollins' connection with Milestone (later as a sub-label of Fantasy and from 2004 of Concord Records ) lasted into the 2000s.

Saxophonist Joe Henderson, who was previously signed to Blue Note and also played with Miles Davis in 1967, began recording for Milestone that year. In September 1967 he came to New York's Plaza Sound Studios with a quintet with Grachan Moncur III , Kenny Barron , Ron Carter and Louis Hayes and a sextet supplemented by Mike Lawrence to record his own compositions by Henderson and classics. On the next record, Tetragon , he played in a quartet at Don Friedman, Carter and Jack DeJohnette . Herbie Hancock was part of the Plaza Sound Studios on Power To The People , recorded in 1969 .

Also in 1967 the then little-known alto saxophonist Gary Bartz has been obtained, the plates already clearly for Milestone partially fusion-oriented were (Harlem Bush Music) and also with the Black Power feeling of time played, but also the psychedelic recordings feelings of the 1968 time ( Another Earth) .

Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner was under contract with Milestone from the early 1970s

Lee Konitz was one of the most sought-after white jazz musicians in cool jazz . The saxophonist could be heard on Miles Davis' Birth of the Cool from 1949 when he was 21 . Keepnews produced an album with duets that Konitz presented with various musicians such as Joe Henderson, Dick Katz, Karl Berger , Jim Hall , Elvin Jones and Eddie Gomez . The record, recorded on September 25, 1967 in the Plaza Sound Studios , has a special charm because the Standard Alone Together was recorded in various duo constellations and arranged in the manner of a suite.

Nat Adderley brought his brother Cannonball Adderley's rhythm section into the studio; In addition to himself, the flautist Jeremy Steig and Joe Henderson played in the front line . Nat Adderley had previously performed as a trumpeter and cornet player on his brother's recordings at Riverside, but has also released some recordings under his own name for the label.

With McCoy Tyner, Keepnews was able to win one of the most sought-after pianists of the time. Tyner already had some of his own recordings under Bob Thiele at Impulse! and released on Alfred Lions Blue Note and appeared as a sideman on Coltrane's legendary 1964 album A Love Supreme . For Milestone, Tyner released albums such as Sahara (1972), Enlightenment (1973), Fly With the Wind (1976) and Supertrios (1977). For the latter album, Keepnews had the idea to let Tyner play in two different trios with Ron Carter / Tony Williams and Eddie Gomez / Jack DeJohnette . Together with Ron Carter, Sonny Rollins and Al Foster , Tyner formed the Milestone Jazzstars .

In 1972 the rights to the recordings of Milestone and Riverside were sold to Saul Zaentz 'Fantasy Records, which had previously made their money mainly with the recordings of the band Creedence Clearwater Revival . Fantasy was also able to bring Keepnews to San Francisco as "Head of Artists and Repertoire " for its jazz department , with Keepnews remaining active as a producer. He was also Vice President of Fantasy for many years. In addition to the Riverside and Milestone catalogs, Keepnews was also responsible for the recordings of another large label, Prestige Records, at Fantasy. Despite the good conditions - also from Keepnews' point of view - he left Fantasy 1980 and worked as a freelance producer:

"I've proven to myself that when I have to work for someone else, I'm not happy even in the best of conditions."

Landmark (1985-1993)

After a few years as a freelance producer, Keepnews founded, contrary to its own resolutions, its own label, Landmark Records. Commenting on Landmark's creation, Keepnews said:

"I did what I always said I would never do again, I started another record label."

While vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson has previously released on Blue Note, pianist Mulgrew Miller and the Kronos Quartet were real new discoveries.

Miller was previously known in particular as a sideman with Mercer Ellington (the son of jazz legend Duke Ellington) and Betty Carter . Keepnews gave him the opportunity in 1985 to release his first album Keys to the City .

The Kronos Quartet became known to a larger audience through Keepnews

The Kronos Quartet - a string quartet founded in 1973 - mainly performed contemporary music live. In 1985 they released their first album Kronos Quartet Plays Music of Thelonious Monk under Keepnews , on which they implemented compositions for string instruments by Monk, who died in 1982. 1986 followed with Music of Bill Evans , another album compositions by another Keepnews artist from the Riverside era. In 1999 the Kronos Quartet was awarded the renowned Rolf Schock Prize .

In 1988 Keepnews published the partially autobiographical book The View from Within: Jazz Writings, 1948–1987 . It was his second book after A Pictorial History of Jazz: People and Places from New Orleans to Modern Jazz , published in 1956 together with Grauer , which was reprinted in 1982.

In 1993 - Keepnews was now 70 years old - he sold Landmark to Muse Records. Even before Landmark was sold, Keepnews was increasingly appearing as a producer of reissues of historical jazz recordings by various artists and labels. Including his own recordings with Monk, Adderley and Montgomery in the 1950s and 1960s, which were later sold as CD reissues under the name Original Jazz Classics (OJC). His retrospectives on Monk, Evans and Ellington and the liner notes written for them earned him a total of four Grammys .

At the 2004 Grammy Awards , Keepnews received the Recording Academy's Trustees Award, a prize for the life's work of non-performing musicians. The price corresponds to the “ Lifetime Achievement Award ” for the performing artists, which in the same year went to Keepnews' long-time companion Sonny Rollins. Despite many economic setbacks, Keepnews is one of the most artistically successful producers in jazz history, who always saw himself as someone who gave his artists the opportunity to make their music:

“I've always seen myself more as a catalyst. I've never played an instrument and ultimately found that this was my strength as a producer. I never felt I was in competition with the musicians, or I thought I could play a solo better. It became my job to create the best possible environment in which the musicians could realize themselves. It is not easy and never boring. "

Publications (selection)

Original recordings

Recordings that Keepnews was responsible for alone or as a co-producer.

• 1954: Randy Weston Plays Cole Porter In A Modern Mood (Randy Weston, Riverside)
• 1955: Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington (Thelonious Monk, Riverside)
• 1956: Brilliant Corners (Thelonious Monk, Riverside)
• 1957: Monk's Music (Thelonious Monk, Riverside)
• 1958: Everybody Digs Bill Evans (Bill Evans, Riverside)
• 1959: Chet (Chet Baker, Riverside)
• 1959: Portrait In Jazz (Bill Evans, Riverside)
• 1959: Live in San Francisco (Cannonball Adderley, Riverside)
• 1960: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (Wes Montgomery, Riverside)
• 1960: Stratusphunk (George Russell Sextet, Riverside)
• 1961: African Waltz (Cannonball Adderley, Riverside)
• 1961: Sunday at the Village Vanguard (Bill Evans, Riverside)
• 1961: Waltz for Debby (Bill Evans, Riverside)
• 1961: How My Heart Sings! (Bill Evans, Riverside)
• 1961: Ezz-thetics (George Russell Sextet, Riverside)
• 1962: The Stratus Seekers (George Russell Septet, Riverside)
• 1969: Peacemeal (Lee Konitz, Milestone)
• 1972: Sahara (McCoy Tyner, Milestone)
• 1976: Everybody Come On Out ( Stanley Turrentine , Milestone / Fantasy)
• 1977: Supertrios (McCoy Tyner, Milestone / Fantasy)
• 1985: Kronos Quartet Plays Music of Thelonious Monk (Kronos Quartet, Landmark)
• 1985: Keys to the City (Mulgrew Miller, Landmark)
• 1986: Music of Bill Evans (Kronos Quartet, Landmark)

Reissues

A large number of Keepnews' own productions have appeared as reissues in the Original Jazz Classics series or in the Orrin Keepnews Collection , for example . This listing only presents reissues for which Keepnews was not the producer of the original recording.

• 1996: Straight, No Chaser (Thelonious Monk, Columbia , originally produced by Teo Macero in 1967 )
• 2002: Monk's Dream (Thelonious Monk, Columbia, originally produced by Teo Macero in 1964)

Retrospectives

• 1983: The Interplay Sessions (Bill Evans)
• 1988: Thelonious Monk - The Complete Riverside Recordings (Thelonious Monk, Fantasy)
• 1998: The Complete Columbia Solo Studio Recordings 1962–1986 (Thelonious Monk, Columbia)
• 2001: The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973) (Duke Ellington)

Books

• Orrin Keepnews & Bill Grauer: A Pictorial History of Jazz: People and Places from New Orleans to Modern Jazz . Hale Publishing, 1956. ISBN 0-517-00009-1
• Orrin Keepnews: The View from Within: Jazz Writings, 1948-1987 . Oxford University Press 1988. ISBN 0-19-505284-6

Awards

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences :

• Grammy Awards 1984 : "Best Album Text" with The Interplay Sessions (Bill Evans)
• 1988 Grammy Awards : "Best Album Text" and "Best Historical Album" with Thelonious Monk - The Complete Riverside Recordings
• Grammy Awards 2000 : "Best Historical Album" with The Duke Ellington Centennial Edition - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (1927–1973)
• Grammy Awards 2004 : "Trustees Award" for his life's work
• Productions that have been inducted into the "Academy Hall of Fame":

1998: Waltz for Debby (Bill Evans)

1999: Brilliant Corners (Thelonious Monk), The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (Wes Montgomery), Live in San Francisco (Cannonball Adderley)

2001: Monk's Music (Thelonious Monk)

2007: Portrait in Jazz (Bill Evans)

Dedications

• The title of the Bill Evans composition Re: Person I Knew from the album Moon Beams is an anagram of the name Orrin Keepnews.

Footnotes

1. ^ Orrin Keepnews, Jazz Producer and Record Executive, Is Dead at 91
2. ^ Jesse Hamlin: A Life in Jazz. (No longer available online.) In: Columbia College Today (online at Columbia.edu). November 2004, archived from the original on June 10, 2007 ; Retrieved June 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

   "If you were big enough to walk into a bar and put down 75 cents or dollar for a drink, nobody asked if you were old enough."

3. ↑ Jim Harrington: Collection pays tribute to local jazz producer Orrin Keepnews. In: (online at InsideBayArea.com). July 26, 2007, accessed August 13, 2007 . 

   "I didn't go there for the music, but the music was there, and the music got me."

4. ^ Jesse Hamlin: A Life in Jazz. (No longer available online.) In: Columbia College Today (online at Columbia.edu). November 2004, archived from the original on June 10, 2007 ; Retrieved June 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

   “I enrolled in graduate school for the express purpose of making myself feel literate again, I wasn't looking for a master's degree. I figured I'd go to Columbia for however long it took me to feel, 'Hey, I'm now capable of going back into the world I wanted to be in.' and then I'd look for a job, which was pretty much what happened. "

5. ↑ Bret Primack: Orrin Keepnews, Producer - Saint Monk . In the Concord Records video blog (on YouTube.com). January 18, 2008 (as of February 8, 2008).
6. ↑ As a result, more covers for Monkauf's recording at Riverside were to be adorned with paintings. On Misterioso (1958) is the seer (or The Prophet ) by Giorgio de Chirico to see on the cover. The cover of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane shows a reclining painting with the profile of a man who resembles Monk.
7. ↑ Jörg Alisch: Thelonious Monk: Ingenious throws with a lettuce leaf in the buttonhole. In: Jazzpages.com. August 27, 2004, accessed July 14, 2007 . 
8. ^ Jesse Hamlin: A Life in Jazz. (No longer available online.) In: Columbia College Today (online at Columbia.edu). November 2004, archived from the original on June 10, 2007 ; Retrieved June 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

   “Monk was not about to show any mercy. He had his standards. I probably learned as much about living from him as I did about music. "

9. ↑ ^{a b c} The Recording Academy Awards. In: Grammy.com. Retrieved June 30, 2007 . 
10. ^ Joel Simpson (AAJ Staff): Bill Evans: 1929-1980. In: AllAboutJazz.com. August 27, 2004, accessed July 13, 2007 . 
11. ^ C. Michael Bailey: Bill Evans: The Complete Village Vanguard Recordings, 1961. In: AllAboutJazz.com. November 1, 2005, accessed July 14, 2007 . 
12. ^ Scott Pollard: Remembering ... Bill Evans. In: AllAboutJazz.com. July 31, 2004, accessed July 13, 2007 . 
13. ^ Mark Sabbatini: Pianist Bill Evans: A Retrospective. In: AllAboutJazz.com. July 31, 2004, accessed July 14, 2007 . 
14. ↑ Musicians were normal employees at that time. The sidemen in particular were often paid per session. In addition, many musicians who had a contract with a label as a leader were often still active as sideman with other musicians and labels in order to secure their livelihood.
15. ↑ Quoting from Ecclesiastes 11: 1-8. To be understood here in the sense of the Elberfeld Bible as a metaphor for the absolute senselessness of the action.
16. ↑ Orrin Keepnews: Cannonball was my friend. In: Cannonball Complete Jazz Fake Book (online at cannonball-adderley.com). Retrieved July 1, 2007 . 

    “An interesting verbal commitment: a non-existent band would be promptly recorded someplace on the road by a still very shoestring company that had never sent its staff producer, me, to work any further than a subway ride away from home. But it turned out to be one of the neatest examples of good results of bread-cast-upon the-waters since the Bible. "

17. ↑ Orrin Keepnews: Cannonball was my friend. In: Cannonball Complete Jazz Fake Book (online at cannonball-adderley.com). Retrieved July 1, 2007 . 
18. ↑ Jim Harrington: Collection pays tribute to local jazz producer Orrin Keepnews. In: (online at InsideBayArea.com). July 26, 2007, accessed August 13, 2007 . 

    "Almost everybody I recorded was someone who I had personal enthusiasm for."

19. ^ Jesse Hamlin: A Life in Jazz. (No longer available online.) In: Columbia College Today (online at Columbia.edu). November 2004, archived from the original on June 10, 2007 ; Retrieved June 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

    “We were fans who became record companies. If you had your own company and said you were a producer, who was going to say you weren't? "

20. ^ Jesse Hamlin: A Life in Jazz. (No longer available online.) In: Columbia College Today (online at Columbia.edu). November 2004, archived from the original on June 10, 2007 ; Retrieved June 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

    “Our goal wasn't to sell a lot of records and get rich. Our goal was to sell enough records to make the next one. "

21. ↑ RJ DeLuke: Orrin Keepnews: Classic Producer of Classics. In: (online at AllAboutJazz.com). July 27, 2007, accessed August 27, 2007 . 
22. ↑ Jim Harrington: Collection pays tribute to local jazz producer Orrin Keepnews. In: (online at InsideBayArea.com). July 26, 2007, accessed August 13, 2007 . 

    "What I proved to myself is that, even under the best circumstances, I'm not happy working for somebody else."

23. ^ Robert Palmer : The Pop Life; A New Label, Landmark, Records Jazz. In: The New York Times (online at nytimes.com). February 20, 1985, accessed January 5, 2009 . 

    "'I've done the very thing I always insisted I would never do again, I've started another record label."

24. ^ Jesse Hamlin: A Life in Jazz. (No longer available online.) In: Columbia College Today (online at Columbia.edu). November 2004, archived from the original on June 10, 2007 ; Retrieved June 30, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

    “I've always thought of myself as more of a catalyst than anything else, I never played an instrument, and I finally figured out that is one of my strengths as a producer. I've never felt that I was competing with the musicians or that I could play that solo better. My job became to provide the best possible environment in which the musicians could express themselves. It's not easy, and it's never dull. "

25. ↑ Keepnews wrote the liner notes for both the original 1967 release and the reissue
26. ↑ Keepnew's son Peter - jazz critic for the New York Times - wrote the liner notes for the reissue

Web links

• JazzEcho.de: The Keepnews Collection
• The story of Riverside Records at JazzEcho
• AllMusic.com: Biography (English)
• AllAboutJazz.com: Orrin Keepnews: Classic Producer of Classics (English)
• Columbia.edu: A Life in Jazz (English)
• Orrin Keepnews at Discogs (English)

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on September 23, 2007 in this version .